Graduate Attributes and Employability Skills
Generic skills equip a person to achieve their full potential in
employment, life and community. They are highly-valued by employers for
their role in enhancing the capacity of employees to respond, learn and
adapt when workplace demands change. Generic skills are known by
several other names, including graduate attributes and employability
skills.
These skills are developed throughout a person’s life and in
multiple settings, including work and life settings and educational
contexts. Each sector of education has a role to play in helping people
to develop their generic skills.
Within the higher education sector, CDU has developed a suite of
graduate attributes that align closely with the employability skills
used throughout the vocational education and training (VET) sector in
Australia. Within the VET sector, employability skills are being given
significant
emphasis in the development and review of training packages.
The table shows how Graduate
Attributes and Employability
Skills align.
| CDU Core Attribute |
Generic Attribute |
Descriptor |
Relationship to Nationally Identified Employability Skill |
| A CDU
Graduate: |
A CDU
Graduate has: |
Personal
Practical
Knowledge |
Acquisition |
Can
identify, retrieve, evaluate and use relevant information and current
technologies to advance learning and execute of work tasks |
Technology
skills that contribute to effective execution of tasks |
| Application |
Is
an efficient and innovative project planner and problem solver, capable
of applying logical and critical thinking to problems across a range of
disciplinary settings and has self-management skills that contribute to
personal satisfaction and growth |
Problem-solving
skills that contribute to effective outcomes
Planning and organizing skills that contribute to productive outcomes
Self-management skills that contribute to employee satisfaction and
growth |
| Creativity |
Can
conceive of imaginative and innovative responses to future orientated
challenges and research. |
Initiative
and enterprise skills that contribute to innovative outcomes |
| Knowledge base |
Has
an understanding of the broad theoretical and technical concepts
related to their discipline area, with relevant connections to
industry, professional, and regional and indigenous knowledge |
Learning
skills that contribute to ongoing improvement and expansion in employee
and company operations and outcomes |
| Citizenship |
Communication |
Demonstrates oral, written, and effective listening
skills as well as numerical, technical and graphic communication skills
in a cross generational environment |
Communication skills that contribute to productive and
harmonious relations between employees and customers |
| Teamwork |
Has a capacity for and understanding of collaboration
and co-operation within agreed frameworks, including the demands of
inter-generational tolerance, mutual respect for others, conflict
resolution and the negotiation of productive outcomes |
Team work skills that contribute to productive working
relationships and outcomes |
| Social responsibility |
Is able to apply equity values, and
has a sense of social responsibility, sustainability, and sensitivity
to other peoples, cultures and the environment |
| World View |
Flexibility |
Can function effectively and
constructively in an inter-cultural or global environment and in a
variety of complex situations |
| Leadership |
Can exercise initiative and
responsibility, taking action and engaging others to make a positive
difference for the common good |
|
